Bizarro World Podcast,
with Nick and Gerardo
Aug. 31, 2026
The free version of the 378th episode of Investing in Bizarro World is now published.
Here’s what was covered:
Macro Musings — Bitcoin’s bear market may be ending, but $83,000 is the line in the sand.
With Nick away this week, Gerardo was joined by Digest Publishing’s resident crypto expert, Chris Curl.
Chris began by revisiting his decision to exit the crypto portfolio before Bitcoin and the altcoins suffered another major leg lower. He has spent the past several months entirely in cash, preserving capital while waiting for the next bull market to take shape. Now he believes that market is either beginning or getting very close.
Bitcoin briefly traded below $58,000, reaching the upper end of the bottoming range Chris had been targeting for months. The latest move toward $80,000 was accelerated by what he described as the largest Bitcoin short squeeze in history. Traders had built enormous leveraged short positions expecting another breakdown, only to be caught offside when Treasury intervention breathed new life into the currency-debasement trade.
Bitcoin now faces heavy resistance between $80,000 and $83,000. A decisive break and hold above $83,000 would give Chris much greater confidence that a new bull market is underway. Because there is limited support immediately below the current price, however, a retracement toward $72,000 would not surprise him. If Bitcoin follows its traditional four-year cycle more precisely, one final decline into the $52,000–$58,000 range could arrive around October and create the ultimate buying opportunity.
Beyond the short-term volatility, Chris believes investors are approaching the beginning of another 12- to 24-month crypto bull market. He continues to warn against leverage, which can destroy investors even when their long-term thesis is correct.
The larger catalyst remains monetary debasement. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s attempt to buy long-dated Treasuries and suppress borrowing costs helped revive demand for Bitcoin as philosophically hard money. Bitcoin remains negatively correlated with the dollar, making it a natural beneficiary when confidence in government debt and fiat currencies deteriorates.
Market Takes — The bond vigilantes are winning, and hard assets remain the escape hatch.
Gerardo and Chris then turned to the increasingly difficult job facing Bessent and Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh.
The government needs lower long-term rates to refinance its enormous short-term debt burden, support the AI and data-center buildout, and keep asset prices elevated. Bond buyers, however, are demanding greater compensation for holding 10-, 20- and 30-year government debt. Bessent’s initial intervention produced only a brief decline in yields before rates moved higher again.
Gerardo views the intervention less as a solution than as an admission that the debt problem can no longer be ignored. With the national debt approaching $40 trillion, the government’s available choices are narrowing. Chris also warned that Warsh may remain committed to tighter monetary policy until inflation moves closer to 2%. A rate increase at an upcoming Federal Reserve meeting could temporarily take the wind out of crypto and other risk assets.
Japan adds another layer of danger. Pressure on the yen carry trade is encouraging Japanese corporations to reconsider their Treasury holdings, while U.S. officials are trying to prevent one of America’s largest foreign creditors from becoming a major seller.
Neither Chris nor Gerardo expects the financial system to collapse on a predictable schedule. Governments have demonstrated an extraordinary ability to keep kicking the can down the road. But both believe the direction is clear: debt will continue accumulating, currencies will continue losing purchasing power, and investors will continue seeking shelter in gold, Bitcoin and other scarce assets.
Gerardo remains bullish across the metals complex. Gold consolidated constructively for six or seven months, briefly traded near $3,900 and has since recovered to approximately $4,600. He expects gold to finish the year above $5,000.
Silver is threatening to break $70. A sustained move above $73 could trigger another rally toward $80–$85. Copper was trading near $6.52, and Gerardo believes it can finish the year closer to $7 despite continued tariff distortions. He also expects uranium to close the year strongly, while lithium appears to be completing a healthy consolidation before its bull market resumes closer to year-end.
The common thread is asset inflation. Policymakers will throw everything they have at keeping markets elevated, even as their policies weaken the currency underneath them. That creates volatility, but it also creates opportunities for investors positioned in hard assets and strategically important commodities.
Bizarro Banter — AI could eliminate human corruption, or construct the cage around us.
The conversation then turned to artificial intelligence, institutional collapse, data centers and mass surveillance.
Chris recently argued that a properly designed AI system could administer law, finance and government more impartially than today’s institutions. An AI judge cannot be bribed, seduced, blackmailed or rewarded with political contributions. If it were coded transparently and implemented with genuinely benevolent intentions, AI could potentially provide a more consistent framework for applying the law.
That “if” is doing a tremendous amount of work.
The same AI infrastructure could instead become a tool for corporate and government control. Chris warned that the combination of AI and humanoid robotics could eventually eliminate as much as 80% of existing employment. Proposals for “universal high income” may sound generous, but a population that depends entirely on government payments has surrendered much of its economic agency. Future governments could make those payments conditional on behavior, compliance or political loyalty.
That concern helps explain the growing resistance to data centers. Communities are being asked to subsidize enormous infrastructure and electricity requirements for some of the richest technology companies in the world. Chris described the backlash in Spokane, where a proposed project was followed by a one-year moratorium on new data centers. He also recently visited Northern Virginia’s data-center corridor and found enormous, nearly empty buildings humming away throughout the region.
Flock surveillance cameras offer a more immediate warning. Gerardo cited the case of a Kentucky police officer who allegedly conducted 2,048 searches to track the mother of his child without obtaining a warrant. Other jurisdictions have canceled contracts or removed the cameras after discovering similar opportunities for abuse. Chris noted that the cameras were removed from Whitman County, Washington, following local pushback.
The technology companies may call that a “user problem,” but Gerardo rejects the distinction. If a system is built with secret capabilities and few meaningful controls, abuse is not an unexpected side effect — it is a foreseeable result.
Between AI, robotics, data centers, license-plate tracking and predictive policing, the dystopian worlds portrayed in The Matrix and Minority Report no longer feel especially far-fetched.
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0:00 Introduction
1:33 Macro Musings: Bitcoin Breaks Out. Bond Vigilantes Push Back. The Debasement Trade Returns.
20:27 Market Takes: Gold Targets $5,000. Silver Eyes $85. Copper Nears $7.
26:35 Bizarro Banter: AI Builds the Cage. Data Centers Spread. Flock Cameras Track Everything.
42:41 Premium Portfolio Picks: (You need to subscribe to Bizarro World Live to get this section)
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